Oakland school district says it found ‘no evidence’ to back up grade inflation allegations

1 / 1

Back to Gallery

Oakland Unified School District said Thursday it found no evidence to support complaints filed by two former teachers that Castlemont High School staff manipulated grades and gave students answers to inflate graduation rates. The allegations are related to the use of an online program called Apex, which helps high school students pass courses that they have struggled to complete in traditional classrooms.

The former teachers filed complaints with the school district in June and July saying specific school administrators, teachers and staff members had intentionally manipulated students’ grades, coerced teachers into changing grades and gave answers to students during testing — all with the intention of boosting the school’s graduation rate.

District officials investigated and found no evidence to support these specific allegations, said district spokesman John Sasaki. They interviewed 14 people, including nine students, named in the complaints.

But, Sasaki said, the district has identified flaws and inconsistencies in the way staff and teachers use Apex.

More Education Stories

“These are serious allegations that district leadership is very focused on because we all want students to get the best education possible,” Sasaki said. “Therefore we have found that corrections to our system need to be made.”

Teachers across the school district use Apex in a variety of ways because the school district has provided limited guidance since it started using the program about five years ago. The district provided vague guidelines when Apex was introduced that gave teachers “wider latitude” than intended, Sasaki said.

Sasaki outlined why some of the allegations might have been made.

One complaint said that students used Apex for a far shorter period of time than would be required to actually learn the course material. The investigation discovered, however, that some teachers use Apex as part of a “blended learning” classroom, meaning they offer in-person instruction but test students online through Apex.

“That would show you why, perhaps, some students didn’t seem to be enrolled in the class who were,” Sasaki said.

A teacher can also alter a student’s grade if a factually correct, but misspelled, answer is entered online.

Sasaki said the complaint alleges that three individual teachers had been coerced to change grades, but the investigators interviewed those staff members and each person denied being coerced.

The district is continuing its internal investigation and plans to bring in an outside expert to conduct an audit. The district will also retrain staff members and teachers on how to use Apex in a more uniform and tightly administered way.

The graduation rate at Castlemont in the 2017-18 school year was 69.9%. It jumped from 64.8% the prior year, but that came after it dropped from 69.7% and 68.1% the two prior years.